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Government, Politics, and Reform

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln are all represented in the Museum's collections—by a surveying compass, a lap desk, and a top hat, among other artifacts. But the roughly 100,000 objects in this collection reach beyond the possessions of statesmen to touch the broader political life of the nation—in election campaigns, the women's suffrage movement, labor activity, civil rights, and many other areas. Campaign objects make up much of the collection, including posters, novelties, ballots, voting machines, and many others. A second group includes general political history artifacts, such as first ladies' clothing and accessories, diplomatic materials, ceremonial objects, national symbols, and paintings and sculptures of political figures. The third main area focuses on artifacts related to political reform movements, from labor unions to antiwar groups.

This image, said to be the most popular poster design of World War II, appeared as a billboard in 1941. Carl Paulson created the design under the direction of the Outdoor Advertising Association of America, Inc., for a U.S. Treasury Department campaign promoting the widespread public ownership of defense bonds and stamps. To demonstrate the power of advertising while selling bonds, the billboard industry displayed this image of the American flag at more than 30,000 locations in some 18,000 cities and towns across the country in March and April 1942. The Treasury brought back the billboard for campaigns in July 1942 and 1943. To meet public demand for copies of the billboard, the Government Printing Office printed 4 million small color reproductions.

The U.S.D.A. Forest Service introduced Woodsy Owl in 1971 as an anti-litter and anti-pollution symbol to promote wise use of the environment. The campaign, which continues today, is primarily aimed at school-age children and uses slogans such as “Give a Hoot! Don’t Pollute” and “Lend a Hand-Care for the Land.”

Scientific studies have linked air pollution to quality of life and health issues. To emphasize the need to control the quality of the country’s air, this poster shows the Statue of Liberty, an American symbol of freedom, wearing a gas mask because she has lost the freedom to breathe clean, healthy air. Produced in 1969 by the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, it resembles rock music posters of the era.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, as Americans became more aware of the need to protect the environment, political organizations and campaigns arose to combat pollution and the waste of our country’s natural resources. The League of Conservation Voters, established in 1969 to raise public awareness, began to publish an annual list of congressional legislators who consistently voted against clean energy and conservation.

This 1974 poster distributed by Environmental Action depicts 12 members of Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike, who were accused of voting on the side of commercial interests over environmental concerns. Their faces are superimposed on a picture of an early 20th-century “sports team” wearing the letter “D” (Dirty Dozen) on their sweaters.

Poster from a 1924 pageant, "Forward into Ligh"” about the life of Inez Milholland

A labor lawyer, World War I correspondent, public speaker, social activist, and New York society figure, Inez Milholland was the idealized image of a suffragist. Believing that people would respond to the parade’s symbolism and spectacle, she rode as its herald. Her strong and feminine figure symbolically led the way to a brighter future for women. Milholland suffered from pernicious anemia, she had been warned by doctors that constant vigorous campaigning would be dangerous to her health but disregarded their concerns to further promote the cause. She collapsed and died in 1916 while traveling to promote woman suffrage. She became the martyred heroine of the movement, forever remembered as the 1913 parade’s inspiring herald.

Artist J. Howard Miller produced this work-incentive poster for the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company. Though displayed only briefly in Westinghouse factories, the poster in later year has become one of the most famous icons of World War II.

As women were encouraged to take wartime jobs in defense industries, they became a celebrated symbol of female patriotism. But when the war ended, many industries forced women to relinquish their skilled jobs to returning veterans.

Cesar Estrada Chavez, the founder of the United Farm Workers of America, is one of the most recognized Latino civil rights leaders in the United States. A Mexican American born in Yuma, Arizona, his family lost their small farm in the Great Depression (1930s). Like many Americans, they joined the migration to California and worked for low wages in its great agricultural fields. The agricultural industry in the West was a modern, market-driven phenomenon. In 1965, the United Farm Workers of America, led by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, began its five-year Delano grape strike against area grape growers for equal wages for foreign workers. Filipino and Mexican Americans who labored in California vineyards were suddenly visible in the eyes of American consumers. The movement to boycott table grapes mobilized students and educated consumers across America. The text on this poster, printed around 1970, describes Chavez's vision of political and economic emancipation for farm workers. La Causa, or The Cause, as it was known among Mexican Americans, was the political and artistic touchstone of the Chicano movement.